Cowboys great Walt Garrison dead at 79

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Walt Garrison, a former NFL fullback who played nine seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and won a Super Bowl with them in 1971, has died. He was 79.

Garrison was a star at Oklahoma State before the Cowboys selected him in the fifth round of the 1966 NFL Draft. 

He was also drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, who were in the American Football League at the time.

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Walt Garrison, a running back for the Dallas Cowboys, in 1974. (AP Photo/File)

He was with the Cowboys from 1966 to 1974, retiring as the team’s No. 3 rusher and No. 4 receiver. He gained 3,886 rushing yards.

The team announced Garrison’s death on its website but did not reveal a cause.

Garrison was a cowboy off the field too. The team said he would go out after team meetings and compete in local rodeos as a steer wrestler. He would return to the team hotel before an 11 p.m. curfew.

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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Craig Morton (14) hands off to running back Walt Garrison (32) during the Cowboys' 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl V Jan. 17, 1971, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla. (Fred Roe/Getty Images)

"I wasn’t starting," Garrison once said. "I was returning punts and kicks and covering on the kamikaze squad, that’s all I was doing. And, hell, you could get hurt worse on them than you can rodeoing. I didn’t think much about it, but the Cowboys did."

Legendary Cowboys head coach Tom Landry prevented Garrison from moonlighting as a regular cowboy during the season, but he continued in the offseason.

"Coach